Work to start on huge bathing water project

Scenesetter'Filey beach which has lost its blue flag status'Picture by Neil Silk 123210'07/08/12

Published:09:01Thursday 17 October 2013

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Part of Primrose Valley Road is set to be shut down this week, as work begins on a project to help restore Filey’s famous bathing water to its former glory.

An underground chamber is set to be constructed by Yorkshire Water, which will be capable of storing enough storm water to fill 1,000 bathtubs, in a bid to help bring Filey’s bathing water up to rigorous new European standards.

Filey was stripped of its prized Blue Flag award in 2012, after water samples failed a string of tough quality tests.

Since then, misconnected plumbing from homes and businesses in Filey has been pinpointed as the cause, with wrongly connected pipes allowing dirty water to seep into the sea, rather than the foul sewer.

It is hoped that the 80,000-litre chamber at the Primrose Valley Road pumping station will reduce the risk of untreated water spilling into a nearby watercourse.

Project Manager Mike Glews said the work has been timed to avoid disruption during Filey’s peak season.

“We’re doing this work during the autumn and winter when the holiday park is closed, so we can minimise the impact as much as possible,” he said.

“This is a significant investment for Filey since it’ll play an important part in helping raise the standard of the town’s bathing waters, therefore affecting whether it reaches new European standards.

“We’ve written to residents to let them know about the work and will keep people updated throughout the project. We would like to reassure people that we will do our best to keep disruption to a minimum.”

The multi-agency scheme will be carried out by engineering specialists Mott MacDonald Bentley and will begin on Monday.

It is expected that the ambitious project will be completed in spring 2014.

In order to carry out the work safely a section of Primrose Valley Road will be temporarily closed during the work.

A signposted vehicle diversion will be in place directing vehicles along Primrose Avenue and through the holiday park.

Yorkshire Water says that residents will still be able to access their properties.